


Crush

by iwasanartist



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-ship, Valentines, emerging attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-19 13:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22711615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasanartist/pseuds/iwasanartist
Summary: There was an extra heart, and Buck didn't want to get shown up by a literal child. That was the only reason. Sure.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 14
Kudos: 187
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Crush

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DramamineOnTopOfMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DramamineOnTopOfMe/gifts).



It started out as a gift card. Buck had gone all out on an awesome LEGO set for Christopher and it didn’t seem right to leave Eddie empty-handed on Christmas day. Besides, who couldn’t use an extra $10 for coffee?

And then there was his birthday. How could Buck NOT buy what could possibly be the last box of a bankrupt company’s candy when he spied it wedged between the Butterfingers and the KitKats at the grocery store checkout lane? He’d been there, after all, when Eddie waxed poetic about the Clark Bar between pullups and how the U.S. Government had stepped in to save it for the troops during World War I. And it was kind of funny since Superman was his favorite character growing up. He’d seen Eddie pretty happy before, but he’d never seen his eyes light up quite that much or his grin get quite as big as it did when Buck dropped the box on the table in the station’s kitchen. He’d passed them around, and man was it gross, like Butterfinger’s dumpy cousin. But that just made Eddie smile more.

“Not my fault you guys don’t have any taste,” he said around a mouthful of it. “More for me!”

It was actually the Clark Bar and the story and the time he and Eddie had spent so long arguing about who should win in a fight between Batman and Superman that Bobby forbade them to talk about it for the rest of the week that led him to ask if Eddie wanted to go to a movie.

“I don’t know, man. They’ll probably just fuck it up.”

“Come on! I can’t go by myself and ask for a ticket to ‘Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’ by myself!”

“Lucky for you, there’s this thing called online ordering. And you could just stop at Birds of Prey, and I’m 100 percent positive that they’d know what you wanted.”

“Oh, come on,” Buck whined. “Chimney and Maddie even said they could watch Christopher.” Eddie huffed and put his hands on his hips and that was when Buck knew he almost had him convinced. “My treat.”

Buck was relieved when Eddie was standing in line next to him. He didn’t think he was all that sexist, but it just felt weird being a guy by himself in line for a girl power movie. He hadn’t told Maddie that of course — she’d have probably knocked him upside the head if he had — and he was still a little surprised at the little smile she tried to hide and how quickly she’d said yes to watching Christopher when he’d asked.

And then it happened. 

They’d reached the ticket counter, Buck held up two fingers, said “Two for Birds of Prey,” and just barely caught Eddie’s snicker at the short title as he looked away. And that was all it took. He’d always heard people talk about butterflies in their stomach, but he’d never really understood it until their fingers touched as he handed Eddie a ticket and Eddie knocked a shoulder into his.

“You’re getting me some popcorn for this, right?” Eddie said with laugh.

“Yeah, definitely,” Buck said as his eyes scanned the menu. A lump appeared out of nowhere in his throat. “Wanna…wanna share a bucket? There’s a two-drink combo.”

Eddie nodded and soon they were in the theater, not exactly surrounded by people — they had almost a whole row to themselves — but the crowd was big enough that Buck was able to catch Eddie glancing around, doing a quick count and eyeballing the exits in case of emergency. Buck wasn’t sure if it was holdover from Eddie’s military training or just general cautiousness, but it definitely convinced him that they both needed a movie night.

And yet, for as much as he’d wanted to see the movie — and for all the badgering he’d done to get Eddie to come — Buck more often than not found his eyes drawn not the action on screen, but instead just left of it, stealing glances at Eddie, his eyes and smile sparkling in the light of the movie. He was having a good time, and that made Buck happier than any two hours of comic book action ever could. And if his fingertips happened to brush over Eddie’s in the popcorn bucket from time to time, so what? That’s just what happens when you share a bucket of popcorn. Right?

Right.

At least, that’s what he told himself in the theater. When he got home that night and dreamed about Eddie pushing his back into a wall and pressing their mouths together before his lips burned down his body … well, Buck didn’t really have an answer for that. Just a lot of confusion and eyes that kept drifting Eddie’s way whenever they were in the same room. 

It wasn’t until Maddie caught him gazing aimlessly into his cereal bowl, snapped his head with a kitchen towel and pulled a “So…what’s her name,” because she hadn’t seen him look that smitten since Patty Matthews joined the cheerleading squad in ninth grade that he realized there was a word for what he was feeling. 

He pushed the thought to the back of his head. Tried not to think about it. Of course said yes when Eddie asked him to watch Christopher while he traded half a shift so someone they’d only ever met in passing could go to their kid’s piano recital. Told himself it was just because that’s what friends did.

When he arrived at the house, Eddie was almost ready to leave and Christopher was sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by red, pink and white construction paper.

“So, it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow,” Eddie said, “and _somebody_ forgot to do cards for his classmates earlier in the week.”

“I didn’t forget, I was just busy,” Christopher said as he pulled markers, glitter and glue from an old tackle box. Eddie rolled his eyes and nodded to the coffee table.

“He wants to make ‘em, but I bought some cards if it looks like that’s not going to happen. Do you mind taskmastering?”

“Nah,” Buck said, “It’ll be fun. I haven’t made Valentine’s Day cards since I called it Valentimes.”

“So, last year then?”

“Haha, very funny. We got this. Don’t worry, and have a safe shift.”

They spent three hours working on the cards. Like a two-man assembly line, Buck got to work cutting out 24 paper hearts, Christopher wrote candy heart-style messages on them, Buck traced the message with a bottle of glue before Christopher went to town with the glitter.

“Is that heart for anyone special?” Buck asked with a wink and a nod as Christopher carefully dropped lines of alternating silver and gold and red on a heart he’d said should have an outline in addition to the letters.

“No,” Christopher answered with a shy smile. “You just cut it really crooked and I’m trying to fix it.”

“Hey. Are you besmirching my artistic talent?”

“I don’t know what that means,” Christopher said. His smile got a little bigger as he consulted his list of classmates, crossed the last one off and looked around the table. “But I wonder about your math skills,” he said as he held up an errant 25th heart. “I only needed 24.” Buck plucked the heart from Christopher’s fingers and crumpled it in his hand.

“Well, what my old teachers don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.” He gave the heart a toss toward the trash can. It bounced off the rim, and as he retrieved it, about to throw it away, Christopher spoke up.

“Wait!”

“What?”

“You could make one.”

“I think it’s a little late for that, buddy.”

“Oh, really? I thought you had all this artistic talent…”

Buck snorted and looked at the paper in his hand. He wasn’t about to get shown up by a nine-year-old.

“Okay.” Buck brought the paper back to the table and smoothed it out as best he could. Most of the creases and folds stayed and Buck stared at his imperfect heart for a moment before an idea struck. “Hand me that glue and the silver glitter,” he said. Christopher watched as squeezed out three lines and an outline, poured a pile of glitter and let it sit for a minute before dumping the excess into a plastic tub.

He held the heart out to Christopher. “What do you think?”

I’M  
CRUSHING  
ON U

was written in the center and Christopher’s eyes lit up just like Eddie’s as he grinned.

“That’s really funny!”

Buck sat the card aside and stood up, hauled Christopher out of his chair and steered him to the living room. “Now that that’s all done, what do you say we watch a movie?”

* * *

The credits were just rolling on Jurassic Park when the door opened.

“I’m home!” Eddie called, and Christopher was out of his seat in an instant.

“Dad, look what we did!” he said as Eddie’s eyes traversed the table.

“Wow, that’s … a lot of glitter.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Buck said. “You got a vacuum or something? I’ll clean it up.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it-”

“Look, Dad! Buck even made a card!”

Christopher shoved Buck’s crumpled heart up into Eddie’s hands. The corners of Eddies lips tugged upward as he read the card and turned it around to face Buck.

“Cute,” he said. “For anyone I know?”

“Nah…I don’t know,” Buck said. He couldn’t quite bring himself to look Eddie in the eyes. “There was just an extra one and I thought…”

“Dad, come look at all the ones I made!” Christopher called from the dining table. “None of them say the same thing!”

Eddie grinned and gently tucked the card into the frame of the hall mirror as he joined Christopher.

“That’s really cool, bud,” he said. “But what do you say we get you all cleaned up and then go out for pizza?”

“Yeah!”

In one easy motion, Eddie picked Christopher up and tossed him over a shoulder as the boy squealed and they headed for the bathroom.

“Wanna come, Buck?”

“Oh, no. I shouldn’t…”

“What, worried about your figure? I think you’ll be fine. Come on. My treat.”

“Uh…yeah. Yeah, okay.”

Eddie grinned again and the butterflies re-emerged in Buck’s stomach.

“Great, just give us a few minutes.”

Eddie and Christopher disappeared into the bathroom, and Buck did his best to straighten up the table before stopping in front of the mirror in a last minute check of his teeth and hair. 

His heart stared back at him like it belonged there.


End file.
